Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer promises he won’t give up his fight against the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline, even after the project appeared to clear some major hurdles with the State Department Friday.

The news was seen as a big blow to hopes of environmentalists like Steyer, who have been pressing President Obama to block the 1,000-mile pipeline Canada to Texas.

The project has been supported by Canadian officials, oil officials and many GOP elected officials as a job-producer.

But Steyer — who hosted President Obama at a fundraiser in his San Francisco home last year — has taken a lead in opposing the pipeline, stressing long term effects on Americans’ health and the environment.

And he has backed his views with millions of dollars in ads and educational efforts through his San Francisco-based advocacy group, NextGen Climate Action.

Steyer, considered a potential future Democratic California gubernatorial candidate, issued his statement stressing his resolve to continue fighting the plan.

Steyer was joined by National Nurses United, the nation’s largest organization of nurses, which also blasted the new State Department report, saying that it glosses over the project’s “serious consequences” regarding public health.

Here’s excerpts from Steyer’s statement:

“First of all, this is President Obama’s decision, and the State Department’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) is just an input. So we don’t have an answer yet, and the fight is far from over. I remain hopeful that the President will, in fact, apply the test for Keystone he established in his speech at Georgetown University: that the project cannot be approved if it increases the amount of carbon pollution being put into our air, which it does. I trust the President is aware of the opportunity for America to show leadership on this critical issue, and that he will be mindful of the importance of doing right by our children by tackling climate change head on.

“..In June, the President drew a line in the sand when he said the pipeline would only be approved if “the project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.” Keystone XL fails the President’s climate test.

“The pipeline also poses enormous economic and environmental risks to America’s heartland, threatening our farms, towns and drinking water. And what do the American people get in return? Higher gas prices in the Midwest, only 35 permanent jobs, and none of the profits. If Keystone XL is approved, the real winners will be the oil industry and foreign investors like China who stand to profit from more production of this dirty oil.

“Our efforts to defeat the Keystone XL pipeline will continue. I hope President Obama will take a hard look at the facts before he makes a decision on this enormously risky project. In his State of the Union address this week, the President pledged to “act with more urgency” to combat the threat of climate change. His first step should be to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.”

Here’s the nurses’ union statement:

“There is broad concern about the harmful health effects linked to both the extraction and transport of tar sands, as well as how the Pipeline will accelerate the steadily worsening erosion of health we see every day as a result of climate change,” said Jean Ross, RN, co-president of National Nurses United.

“Nurses will continue to oppose construction of this project, and call on President Obama to stand with our patients and our communities, not the big oil interests, to reject KXL,” Ross said.